“What do you think of my yuppie douchebag shirt?” My buddy B-Boy is modeling for me in my living room. He’s draped his 6-foot-4, 350-pound frame in some black dress pants and a collared, button-down shirt. He’s shaved his head so it’s all smooth and shiny, and trimmed his burly…
Call him the John Darnielle of the North. Like the Mountain Goats’ songsmith, John Samson of Winnipeg, Canada, has a high, reedy voice, modestly folk-inflected sound, and a keen lyrical wit. Samson played in the early ’90s with political punkers Propagandhi. In ’97, tired of catering to testosterone-fueled mosh pits,…
Since its inception, reality TV hasn’t brought us much in the way of realism. Someone who wouldn’t normally nosh on a plateful of live Madagascar hissing cockroaches breaking down and chewing on a few shouldn’t fall under the “reality” category just because there’s prize money involved and an accredited medic…
It’s a Saturday afternoon, and the Atomic Comics location in north Phoenix is a hubbub of rampant geek activity. Dozens of nerds of varying ages and belt sizes mill around the store looking for back issues of the Amazing Spider-Man, trading gaming tips, or participating in Yu-Gi-Oh! collectible card game…
Georgie James is a duo — specifically, the pairing of John Davis and Laura Burheim. Like The Turtles, they are so happy together, or at least it sounds so. Each of the 12 tunes here draws from the peak pop music of yesteryear, when cheerful songs like The Archies’ “Sugar…
Phoenix has a hot hip-hop scene, so to say that The Premiere’s debut album is the best new local CD to hit P-city streets this year is really saying something. And we are saying just that. Three years in the making, London Paris New York is a monster mash-up of…
Tucson’s Greyhound Soul blends rough vocals, country twang, and straight-ahead rock with a twist of the blues. It’s like hearing the child of Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Hans Olson, the Pistoleros, and one of the small, unknown bands you might catch at Modified on a Wednesday…
New vocalists emerge on the jazz scene every year, but Texas-based Lauren White is one who gratifies the listener through the honesty she gives to the selections included on her debut, which blends several standards from the Great American Songbook with a handful of originals. One tune that immediately stands…
Country music superstar Trisha Yearwood is back with a strong, up-tempo single, a new record label, and a forthcoming CD titled Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love. After 16 years with MCA Records, the balladeer switched to Big Machine Records in May for her first new recording since 2005’s…
One of the biggest surprises of the past few years is Christian metalcore act Underoath, who’ve sold almost a million copies of 2004’s breakout underground hit, They’re Only Chasing Safety, and its gold-selling follow-up, Define the Great Line. Almost as amazing: Their breakthrough was for little Northwestern Christian indie label…
For good or ill (usually the latter, alas), some associations haunt performers for their entire careers. Del Shannon became synonymous with his biggest hit, “Runaway,” and was typecast as an “oldies act.” Stevie Nicks will forever conjure visions of ’80s big hair, white platforms, and gauzy shawls. The name Jorma…
It doesn’t get any more old school than C.L. McSpadden. In fact, the 36-year-old DJ extraordinaire has been working the wheels of steel since the late ’80s (long before some of y’all even knew what EDM was) at bygone Valley hotspots like Club Freedom, Planet Earth, and Club 411. This…
Alas, the constant search for the best party in town can be a little exhausting. Sometimes, Club Candids needs a quick break from the saturated scene. This week, we decided to hit up one of our favorite local venues, The Brickhouse Theater, on Thursday, September 20, to check out a…
I’m standing in front of Cash Inn Country on 21st and McDowell, and I’m frightened. I’m scared for several reasons: 1) It’s a lesbian bar; 2) I’m wearing a Metallica Kill ‘Em All T-shirt; 3) it’s a country joint. I use a lifeline and text a girlfriend: “Is it safe…
He who closeth all the doors of his senses, imprisoneth his mind in his heart, fixeth his vital powers in his head, standing firm in meditation, repeating the monosyllable OM, and thus continues when he is quitting the body, goeth to the supreme goal.
–Bhagavad Gita, chapter 8, verse 13 (from the 1890 translation by William Quan Judge)
Although as a reporter I’m obligated to mention that Om is the two-man rhythm section from San Franciscan stoner/droner doom metal band Sleep (Al Cisneros – bass/vox, Chris Hakius – drums), the logistics are not important: these two warm bodies work no better than any others as conduits for the omnipresent brain-erasing throb of the ETERNAL COSMIC HUM. These two set up a riff and examine it, probe its defenses, struggle, claw, bite, and enter it, and finally pound on it good and hard before they toss it limp to the floor. If you stand too close the dense undulating waves of hypnotic monotony may very well pass straight through the backs of your vibrating eyeballs.
Weirdness abounds is this week’s rendition of Future Shock, as we’re pimping the “just announced” concerts of numerous acts coming to the PHX in the near future that are kinda “out there” in many different respects, whether its outlandish stage performances, strange album titles, or bizarre music videos.
There’s no reason to fear 50 Cent, right? That’s what I tell myself while heading towards Manhattan’s Flatiron District for a one-on-one interview with the much-shot gangster emcee. The guy has no beef with me, and besides, he hangs out with people like Dustin Hoffman and Justin Timberlake, perhaps the two-unscariest guys in the universe.
So why — as I wait to be buzzed in behind G-Unit Clothing headquarters’ wall of bulletproof glass — am I shaking?
Thursday 20 Bikini Lounge: Sophisticated Boom Boom with DJ HFE (rockabilly, surf, jazz, classic country, indie, obscuro) The Blooze: DJ El Dedo (rockabilly) Crown Room: Naughty Thursdays with DJ Gable, & Kevin Dow (mash-ups, dance, rock) Dirty Pretty: Foxy Bitch with D-JR (rock, Top 40, hip-hop) The Door: R&R Thursdays…
There must have been something up with the moon last week, because once Thursday rolled around, we started to get super-antsy. No casual neighborhood bar would sate our desires because we were in the mood for vibrating eardrums and dizzying crowds. We wanted it all for our preemptive weekend celebration…
One of Jim Louvau’s favorite talking points when making a case for his new band The Attitude is the void to be filled because there are no more new rock stars. And he’s right. If you want cocksure swagger and violence, rappers have that segment fully under control. And as…
Juliette Lewis, the actress with the off-kilter gaze probably best known for her role as Mallory in Natural Born Killers, experienced a full-blown musical conversion a few years ago and formed a band called the Licks to record some Stooges-style rock. Lewis took some time while doing laundry to talk…
Blues Traveler frontman John Popper made headlines last March when the 40-year-old vocalist and harmonica player demonstrated that mouth harps aren’t the only weapons he likes to wield. After popping Popper’s SUV for going 111 miles per hour and collaring the bluesman for carrying a small amount of marijuana, Washington…
